After US Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna tried to persuade an Indian diplomat to attack President Donald Trump at the US-IIF leadership summit in Washington, Pradeep Rawat, a former Indian envoy to China, said it was wrong for the California congressman to unnecessarily withdraw his name to score points for his domestic policies. He said that there is bipartisan consensus on strengthening Indo-US relations in Washington.
Speaking at the summit, Congressman Ro Khanna said: “I was in China and the Indian ambassador told me that President Trump has lost a generation of trust. If we don’t speak truth about the damage this president has done… then we are not living reality.”
Ambassador Pradeep Rawat, who left his post in March 2026 after decades of service in China, is an expert on East Asian affairs, reserved and an unassuming diplomat. Hence, it is unlikely that Rawat, a 1990 batch IFS officer, would have also used any leader’s name at a state dinner hosted by the US Ambassador to Beijing, a close friend of President Trump. Ro Khanna was part of the US Congress delegation that visited Beijing in September 2025.
Ambassador Rawat, who also served in Europe, said he recalled quoting a Chinese scholar who once said that the United States had great power in building coalitions and coalitions, which allayed China’s need to learn. He said that he reminded the American delegation of the power that the United States has when it competes with China on the global stage.
While Ambassador Rawat was succeeded by Ambassador Vikram Doraiswami, Khanna’s comment created an uproar in the Indian diplomatic community as the Congressman was hitting out at both India and the US by putting words in the mouth of an Indian diplomat against President Trump for his own political purposes. Rawat is known to stay under the radar and quietly do his work instead of making personal comments about a serving American leader by name.
